I mean, if someone was a really awful person in life, is it not a good thing to examine their life and find out where they went wrong, then strive to not do that because their wrong choices led to A, B and C, and those things made them a really awful/unbearable/miserable person? I suppose I can understand not just straight up saying bad things and turning their life into a bad memory, but there are constructive ways to go about criticizing someone, yes?
But since "speaking ill of the dead" is such a no-no, most people would hesitate to say anything bad. Example: Michael Jackson. Toward the end of his life, people were not exactly happy with him. Then he goes and kicks the bucket, and everything on the news is commemorating the big loss we've suffered. The only time you hear someone talk about his faults is in a really derogatory way, like in jokes. And that's not really the kind of criticizing I think we should be doing...
The book mostly has examples from history. But yes. If someone could explain this to me, I'd really like to have the knowledge.
4 comments:
I think because ppl are worried they might come back to haunt them...
Interesting question. I don't really know... I always figured it was a way to keep the peace with people who thought highly of the particular dead person being spoken of.
I googled it just now, didn't really find anything definitive. In my defense, I wasn't trying that hard.
It's because the dead can't defend themselves against what you might say. I think there are a number of notable exceptions to that rule, however... usually those that have committed gross publicly known crimes.
MJ, that is something to avoid. Noted. :)
Berserk, I guess that would make sense. But it's not something I'd be particularly worried about. I think in movies, when I see one person start to say something bad about someone who died, if another person tells them not to speak ill of the dead, it's usually because they agree with whatever "bad things" are being said, but they're too cowardly to admit it in front of others.
Well, Wizard, to be fair, most of the time when you talk bad about someone who's alive, they're not around. So they still can't defend themselves. But that does make sense.
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